Earth alchemy. This little mother-of-millions plant has been struggling along since last winter when I friend gave it to me. After quite a few months of expecting the plant to keel over, it finally seems to have found its strength this summer and I think it is going to survive after all!
The miracle is in
the capacity of your eyes
to distinguish
an ordinary tree
from a sun-crowned
gently nodding
green cathedral.To realize a faucet
is a dispensary
of wet, braided light.To regard
your own left hand
as an astonishing feat
of animation.The alchemist
who changes
a rabid
gnashing world
into unstoppable
tender music
is none other
than you.by Natascha Bruckner (in We’Moon 2013)
I’m getting ready to make a new order of We’Moon datebooks for 2014 and I’ve been going through the 2013 edition looking back over the sections I’d marked and enjoyed and this poem caught my eye. One of the things that I’ve so enjoyed about my woodspractice this is the the opportunity to study very in-depth the alchemy of the woods, of the planet, and my interaction with it. There is so much that I’ve noticed that I would have overlooked without the daily contact. Like this rose…
Deciding to make a go of it even though it is October now…
Spreading open after the rain…
And then so perfect and beautiful and rich that I actually gasped when I saw the picture come up on my computer.
Of course, I planted this rose, so it isn’t quite the same as observing what Nature planted on her own, but it is definitely a part of this alchemy—this interaction—between this patch of land and me.
WoodsPriestess 